Thursday, May 2, 2013

A-Z Blog Challenge Reflections

First, many, many thanks to Arlee Bird and everyone with
the A-Z Blog Challenge team. What a wonderful experience this has been,
and all of you made it special!

I’m writing a novel, one I refer to as an old-fashioned
ghost story, but the industry would call everything from paranormal romance to
gothic romance with a mystery tie-in.

I finished draft three just before the A-Z Blog Challenge.

I intended to set draft three aside for a few weeks and
let it stew and work on something else. I thought of adopting one of my
short stories to a ghost story.

My friend Dawn suggested the A-Z Blog Challenge.

I mentioned it to a couple of folks, but demurred.

My friend Jodie offered the convincer by participating
herself.

My topic then became… Ghosts: Real, Imaginary, and
Metaphorical.

So how did I find the experience?

Fun, in that I had to come up with ghost topics from
A-Z. Some, admittedly were a stretch, but always enjoyable

Social, in that my blog had 2 followers before the
challenge began. It now has 30. Thank you all for that. And I
found a number of wonderful blogs to follow that I had no idea existed before
this challenge, and will continue to follow.

Painful, in that a number of posts required me to sit in
front of my laptop and bleed. That, however, was my choice, not a fault
of the challenge.

Overall, I’m so happy to have made it through. I’m
exhausted, but am filled with accomplishment. I also feel as though I’ve
been molded by a blacksmith into a better writer.

I read many incredible blogs. Here are some amazing ones
I came to through the challenge.

I’m now ready to start draft four of my ghost story.
It’s good. I know how to make it better.

The challenge has helped.

I’m such a newbie that I hesitate to offer suggestions to
make the A-Z Blog Challenge better. But I do agree with fellow blogger
Mina that one should have to choose a category, even if that category is (PP)
Potpourri for those who want to mix things up a little.

To that end, offering more categories, and allow a blogger
to choose more than one. One of my favs involved both travel and
food. (TR) (FD) or whatever the acronym will be.

Choosing a category might make the blog hop a little more
focused and purposeful. Like if I’m walking into a bar for a drink and
they don’t serve wine, I’m outta there. I’m not interested in straight
liquor, not that there’s anything wrong with that or folks who prefer it.
It’s just not my thing.

I'll check out as many of the reflections as I can, and will
return next year.

In the meantime, with my regular posts, I'll keep y'all up
with what I learn about writing, storytelling, provide a story here and there,
and keep everyone posted on how draft four is coming along.I have three agents interested in seeing it
on its completion.

27 comments:

What a cool looking blog, the mood is perfect in keeping with how you described your novel! I didn't make it through as many blogs as I had hoped, but hey, there's always May - Dec to do that! :) At the time I signed up, I wasn't sure of my theme, but after I had decided on music (MU) I wish I had had a chance to go and label. Congrats on making it through!Jess/Blogging on the Brink

This is the kind of Reflections post that makes me feel good. And not just because you mentioned my blog--thank you! I like how you came out of April. It's as we would hope.The labeling thing is still a work in progress. We'll come up with a better solution as time goes by as we keep learning new things. I think we're kind of on the right track though.

Thanks for succumbing to the lure and joining us in April. I wish you well with the novel

Well done on completing the A to Z. Your novel sounds intriguing and, since I have only just found your blog through the A to Z reflections post, I'll have to go back and take a look at your posts, because I am a really big ghost story fan :)

Great reflection, and I'm so glad you got out of it what you intended. And make that 31 followers. I like this blog! Will be back to check it out more. Gotta read ALL the reflections...Tina @ Life is GoodCo-host, April 2013 A-Z Challenge Blog@TinaLifeisGood, #atozchallenge

Hello, Rocky! Congrats on finishing the Challenge!! I'm glad you had such a positive experience. This Challenge really is a great way to write something other than fiction, to stretch our more technical writing muscles. Good luck with draft four of your novel!!

Thanks for the very nice wrap up and also for the links to some of the blogs that really impressed you. It was my 1st year too and now that it's done I'm looking forward to having time to read all the blogs I missed. I love paranormal so I'll be going back to catch up on all of your earlier entries. Congrats on your book!

I think if they changed it to require a category, I would need to wait until the last moment to sign up so I knew what I was going to be doing for the A-Z. Wouldn't be too bad, but it would mean I'd be right near the bottom of the list. But if everyone had the same requirement, it would be perfectly fair.

And now you have thirty-six, I am your newest follower from the challenge. I'm sorry I did not make it to your blog during the challenge, but it was so hard and I was just hitting as many as I could, randomly. You will continue to gain new followers, long after the challenge (from the challenge). Congratulations on finishing and thank you for sharing your experience. I hope to have my own reflection post up in a day or two.

Thank you for participating in the challenge this year. I am glad to know that you enjoyed the experience and feel like you've been "molded" into a better writer. Although I'm not a fan of Ghost stories, I think your theme is GREAT because it helps to add some variety to the challenge, since the "writing tips" theme that are offered on many other blogs can tend to get stale after a while :)

It is especially nice of you to highlight blogs, as well as specific blog posts that stood out during the challenge. It surely helps others, who may have missed those blogs, to get a glimpse of all the goodness that participants offered up during April. The category thing is very touch-and-go; we learned a lot about how people made use of it this year and, as Arlee mentioned, will continue to work out the kinks as best as we can to find out which solutions work best for those involved in the challenge.

I'm happy to know that you plan to participate again in the next one. Be sure to invite your friends to join in when that happens!